Thursday, June 26, 2014

For her last week as hostess of the CCEE Stampers challenge blog, Anne Harmon wanted us to get ready for summer -- and pull out those sunglasses! I also had to pull out some flip-flops to go with them!

Friday, June 20, 2014

This week's Tutorial Time challenge on Speedy TV is Using Old Photos on your cards. Cheryl Miller wrote a tutorial for this fun challenge. I looked through a whole pile of photos and found one of three of my grandchildren at Halloween. I copied it, cut it out and stamped a fun Halloween image to go with the photo.

If you'd like to play along with us, make a card using a photo and link it up at the end of the challenge post on Speedy TV. You could win a free stamp set.

Please hop along with us! You have a chance to win one of the above stamp sets! Just comment on the following blogs (don't forget this one), each day for more chances to win! (You do NOT have to comment on all the blogs each day! The names are drawn randomly!) All six winners will be announced on

June 14, 2014, on the Mark's Finest Papers blog. You can go back and comment if you missed a day. (HINT: The more you comment, the more chances you have to win and comments on the MFP blog count twice!) The deadline for

commenting is 10 PM EST on Friday June 13, 2014.

As I write this post, it is 80 degrees outside, promising to go to 88 degrees by mid-afternoon. Despite that, today's featured set is Please Snow, and I have two cards for you.

For my first card, I stamped and cut out two of the snow people and mounted them in front of the cute little pine tree. My sister recently gave me a whole stack of 12 x 12 Christmas card stock she no longer wanted. The snowflakes were the perfect background for my card. I added some Polar White Flower Soft for the snow.

My second card is the other snowman in this cute set. I love his bow tie and furry hat.

I decided to use this card for my June Christmas Card challenge cards over on Speedy TV, so I made four of them. They actually went together pretty quickly.

I hope you've enjoyed this month's blog hop and will try to use some of our cards as the starting point for your creativity. Be sure to check out the rest of the blogs in today's hop.

Jane Chambers brought us this week's Tutorial Time challenge and tutorial -- a mini book, which measures 3" by 4". I used some images from today's featured set in the Mark's Finest Papers Blog Hop, Please Snow, as well as images from several other MFP sets. I confess I had a bit of a problem with this project; but with diligence and re-reading (and maybe some dumb luck!), I did create my little Christmas-sy book.

Here is the front of my book:

And here are the inside pages, all full of fun Christmas stuff!

I hope you like my little Christmas "gift" in the beginning of the summer. If you'd like to give this technique a try, link up your card at the end of the challenge post on Speedy TV. You might just win a free stamp set.

Please hop along with us! You have a chance to win one of the above stamp sets! Just comment on the following blogs (don't forget this one), each day for more chances to win! (You do NOT have to comment on all the blogs each day! The names are drawn randomly!) All six winners will be announced on

June 14, 2014, on the Mark's Finest Papers blog. You can go back and comment if you missed a day. (HINT: The more you comment, the more chances you have to win and comments on the MFP blog count twice!) The deadline for

commenting is 10 PM EST on Friday June 13, 2014.

Today I am part of the official blog hop, and I again I have two cards for each of the featured sets. In case you hadn't figured out my "theme" for this month, I'll tell you. I've used die cuts on each of the cards I've made for this blog hop. My first card uses a Flip-Its die. I stamped and colored the flower twice and then cut them out, layering them to give a bit more depth to the final look. The DP is from the same K & Company pad of paper that I used yesterday.

I think I'm going to put this card in my Operation Write Home box, so I picked an appropriate sentiment from the choices given me in this set.

My second card using Great Flowers might also go to Operation Write Home. It's a one-layer card, with just the flower popped up on foam pop dots. I used a Heidi Swapp stencil and sponged the color on a section of the card before putting on the flower and stamping the sentiment. I'm sure you noticed that this card does not have a die cut on it. But the flower is cut out and popped up. That's almost a die cut. (That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!!!)

I have a bonus project for today's set. I was watching a video on how to make a cute little basket using the envelope punch board and decided that I would make one. I decorated it with one of the flowers and a sentiment from today's featured set.

For my first card using Flower Blocks, I stamped the strip of butterflies three times and colored each one differently. Then I cut them out and mounted them on black and then white. The background paper is from an old stack of oriental-looking DP called Far East; the symbol is from the MFP set, Asian Delights.

My second card using Flower Blocks is a telescoping card. I had never done a telescoping card using square dies before, and it was a little trickier than with circles.

Here it is opened all the way. The birthday sentiment is from another MFP set, Daffodil Greetings.

Make sure to visit all the rest of the participating members of the team today and increase your chances of winning a free stamp set by commenting on each one of them.

Clownmom

A little about me

My name is Lois, and I've been stamping since 2006. I retired a couple of years ago; and, although I volunteer at my church and a local non-profit, I do spend a great deal of my energies on this exciting hobby. My late husband and I raised three children, and I have eight grandchildren -- from age 9 to 27.